1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image pickup apparatus capable of providing an image with classification information and to a method therefor.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the widespread use of digital cameras, storing data of an image captured by a digital camera and image data captured from a personal computer (hereinafter referred to as a “PC”) on various types of recording media by the digital camera and the PC has become popular.
Image data stored on a recording medium is reproduced by an image reproducing apparatus, such as a digital camera, a PC, or a printer, in order to be viewed, edited, organized, or other reasons.
There are a digital camera, a PC, and a printer that can provide images with properties for enabling efficient image retrieval and that allows a user to retrieve an image using the properties as a retrieval key.
There is a digital camera that can display an in-focus position of a captured image. One such example technique disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2003-143444 can display an in-focus position in an enlarged manner to facilitate a user to easily recognize it. There is a technique for storing position information on an in-focus position in a captured image.
However, in the above mentioned techniques, because an image is viewed by use of a history of editing (operation), provision of proper properties according to the content of an image is not considered. In particular, when an image is subjected to editing, such as cropping, which cuts out a wanted portion from an image, classification information different from that representing conditions in capturing may be proper.
For example, in the case of an image of people captured in a shooting mode suited for capturing images of people, the provision of classification information regarding people to the image raises no problem at this time, but such people classification information is probably inconvenient when a portion other than people is cut out from the image by cropping.